This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

At the same time, a chain could have a “less bad” quarter. It’s still bad, but shows up as a positive. Chili’s fiscal fourth-quarter same-store sales decline of 1.8 percent thrilled investors last week, for instance, because it was a considerable improvement over the 4.5-percent decline the chain reported in the previous quarter.

Maybe the best example of that, however, came from Chipotle, whose 23.6-percent decline in same-store sales in the second quarter was a 610-basis-point improvement over the first quarter — all due to the chain’s food safety issues from 2015.

So it’s important to take such movement with a grain of salt. Same-store sales are flawed, in general. It’s difficult for chains with strong sales to maintain those numbers for long, and concepts with particularly weak sales, like Chipotle, are bound to show some improvement.

Still, the broad-based weakness further demonstrates the issues currently facing the restaurant industry. Over-expansion, heavy competition from other sectors offering prepared food, lower grocery prices, or simply consumers shifting their habits all seem to be draining traffic from the business. Whether it’s a longer-term slowdown or a one-time blip remains to be seen.

The biggest slowdown in the second quarter, by the way, came from fast-casual chains, which averaged a 1.9-percent slowdown. All but two fast-casual chains saw same-store sales slow in their most recent quarter, and that’s before Zoe’s Kitchen Inc. reports its earnings. And that’s also with Chipotle, the traditional sector leader, improving on its awful first-quarter report with less awful results.

Those results demonstrate that the current issue is broad-based, rather than related to sector-specific issues, such as tips at casual-dining concepts or consumers shifting away from traditional quick-service restaurants.